DPS shot fired at tire kills 2 instead

By Lynn Brezosky and Jason Buch |
October 26, 2012

LA JOYA - Skid marks and dried blood in the gravel of a desolate country road were about the only signs left Friday of a deadly pursuit where a DPS trooper shot from a helicopter at what was thought to be a truck smuggling drugs.

The two men who died Thursday were illegal immigrants from Guatemala and likely being smuggled into the country, officials said. A third person was hospitalized and six were arrested.

Department of Public Safety leaders said Friday the sharpshooter meant to disable the vehicle, but that tactic troubled officials from the Guatemalan consul in McAllen and a civil liberties group.

"I cannot understand why DPS made the decision to shoot them," Alba Caceres, the consul, said in calling for a "serious and big investigation" of the case. "I have never seen something similar."

DPS spokesman Tom Vinger said the chase began when game wardens tried to pull over a red pickup they suspected of carrying drugs. When the driver did not stop, the wardens called DPS.

Vinger said the sharpshooter meant to disable the truck and radio chatter aired on the Valley's KRGV-TV backs that up.

"During the pursuit, the vehicle appeared to have a typical 'covered' drug load in the bed of the truck," Vinger said. "DPS aircraft joined the pursuit of the suspected drug load, which was traveling at reckless speeds, endangering the public. A DPS trooper discharged his firearm from the helicopter to disable the vehicle."

No drugs were found in the truck.

During interviews at a Border Patrol facility, survivors told consular officials that the men died from gunfire, and that their cover was flimsy and blowing off, enough so that the trooper in the helicopter could see them.

Vinger said the officer who discharged his weapon was placed on administrative leave.

Caceres said the dead men were both fathers, one with two children and one with three.

All nine people believed to be in the truck left the same city together on Oct. 8, she said. Each paid $2,000 to be taken from San Martín Jilotepeque in Chi­mal­tenango state, through Mexico, and another $3,000 to be brought to the interior United States. Most were headed to New Jersey.

The group crossed the Rio Grande early Thursday, Caceres said. They walked six hours through scrubland before meeting up with the truck.

"Why is a state game warden involved in enforcement of federal immigration law?" he asked. "Why is a game warden in dangerous high-speed pursuit of people who were suspected of nothing more than a civil offense? And where's the 'public safety' when a trooper in a helicopter opens fire on unarmed persons in a vehicle on a public road?"

Statutory authority

Parks and Wildlife spokesman Mike Cox said Texas game wardens routinely patrol these areas and are authorized to respond to suspected criminal activity.

"They have the same statutory authority as highway patrol troopers," Cox said.

Almost every DPS helicopter on patrol is manned by a tactical flight officer, who operates surveillance equipment and is trained to use the AR-10 rifle stored in the chopper.

According to DPS policy, lethal force can be used when the officer or someone else is at "substantial risk of death or bodily injury."

Troopers can fire at vehicles when deadly force is justified or it's "for the sole purpose and intent of disabling a vehicle."

Hidalgo County consistently has more highway patrol pursuits than any other in Texas, according to data from DPS. Smugglers along the border often use blocking vehicles and homemade road spikes to evade pursuit.

In response, DPS has hired more troopers, deployed more helicopters and purchased high-speed boats equipped with machine guns.

"Some of these pursuits, they're desperate. They don't really care if they run over innocent citizens, bystanders - they have no qualms," said DPS Director Steve McCraw. "At the end of the day they're concerned about getting back to the river or protecting their drug load or, in some cases, their human trafficking load."